Infill Thinking Lifting the O&G knowledge curve

By the time 3Q19 earnings season got underway in late-October, O&G industry executives and investors had had plenty of time to digest this little bombshell that Elizabeth Warren dropped in September. Elizabeth Warren on X (formerly Twitter): “On my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that …

We’ve complied a set of questions that are critical to determining the oilfield outlook for 2020. For any active Infill Thinking reader that completes this important survey, we will provide some pretty compelling benefits including…. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read …

While logging rig count activity trends, we take a look at the latest outlook from a leading contractor… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to …

It probably comes as no surprise to Infill Thinking readers that 2019 has been a record year for corporate transactions involving oilfield water firms and assets. We’ve covered transactions (and potential transactions) ad nauseam throughout the year. With 2019 winding down, we paused today to reflect on the corporate transaction …

Earlier this month, the sale of the Preferred Sands Arizona mine to a new entrant came to light. In our update on the deal, we noted the transaction was not an example of the consolidation many are waiting for in the proppant supply space. This week, another similar transaction has …

Pictures posted to social media recently have the last mile community talking… here’s what we’ve been able to confirm with the parties involved. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. …

In this update, three charts – one showing the surge of ESG interest in the oilfield and two others explaining why. The data is followed up with in-depth analysis and commentary on sentiment, investment, why it matters, who’s doing what, RFQ impacts, what oilfield niches have big ESG opportunities, and …

As the old adage and Metallica song go: misery loves company. With the US land rig count continuing to spiral downwards, it might be constructive for US contractors to commiserate with their Canadian compatriots. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this …

We listened to four public frac sand company conference calls last week. Here are the polished market intel points that we screened out from the raw feedstock of these calls. Feature image: Stack Sizer® wet sizing frac sand, courtesy of Derrick Corporation There’s a lot more to this story… Login …

Scrapping is a tough but necessary step to set the pressure pumping industry up for a return to health. It’s a key hurdle to making frac investable again. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

Relative to sand production, last mile is certainly a relative bright spot at the moment. But we submit that too many… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you …

A deal has been reached that sees a long-standing frac sand mine change hands… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your …

This E&P company is one of those operators that has been actively (and publicly) evaluating strategic alternatives for their water business for much of the year. We wrote about their thinking on the process in May 2019 and again last month. This week we got the latest on management’s thinking …

Another E&P is warming up to handing off their in-house water assets and could divest their water infrastructure to the third-party water midstream industry in the near-term… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you …

Taking a high-level look at upstream activity through the latest in rig count trends throughout the Lower-48. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill …

Today we take a closer look at a costly misstep in the O&G industry’s effort to figure out oilfield water handling solutions as water midstream rapidly evolves… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you …

In this update, we’ve carefully curated eight notable frac sand market datapoints, most of which came to light in the past seven days. These are mostly skimmed from… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

For the first time since the disruptive local sand shift began back in 2017, the total workforce employed by the US local frac sand mining industry has… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you …

Since your inbox is probably flooded with press releases and sell-side notes this week, we are zooming out to highlight these key points in oilfield water from a busy earnings week… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive …

2020 E&P capex budget announcement season is still a couple months out on the horizon, but planning is well underway for most operators at this point. Here’s some analysis and clues about where it might go…. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To …

In a data-driven update earlier this week, we noted that local sand capacity growth has stalled most everywhere with a couple exceptions. And a couple days later, here we are adding another mine in one of those exception basins! There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the …

Rough start to frac sand earnings season – a start inline with the implications of Union Pacific’s earnings a couple weeks back. US Silica’s stock performance on their earnings release this morning (-30% intraday) reminds us this morning that bad news is never priced until it happens. There’s a lot …

In past updates, we’ve shared a look at the local sand boom by “mine announced” date. Today, we are slicing and dicing the data a slightly different way to provide a look at how capacity has come online in this chart of the day update. Local sand capacity has entered …

Oilfield water continues to make for fertile soil producing a bumper crop of M&A deals. This week, a potential deal we’ve been listening for since May was announced. Separately, another E&P operator… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and …

The normal playbook for land drilling c-suite commentary at this point in the year is highlight for investors the coming reset in customer budgets in early-2020. One of them did that last week, but also went a step further… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the …

We are picking back up our Silica Valley Series today with a look at Scarco Service’s Transportation Asset Management System (TAMS) software platform. TAMS was built from an oilfield service company’s perspective to lower costs and create visibility across the entire completions cost structure. There’s a lot more to this …

We hope you find the result of our origin tracing exercise as fascinating as we did. This is a new and exciting space with lots of high quality firms growing into their boots… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update …

A recent Bloomberg article highlights several high profile examples of banker to industry leadership role transitions, but it does miss a couple big recent moves. Here are two very recent Banker-to-Industry transitions the solid third-party article doesn’t mention and a big question it raises in our mind… There’s a lot …

Digging into the public record, we’ve unearthed new details on the latest Rocky Mountain greenfield frac sand project… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to …

This week, Infill Thinking celebrates the three-year anniversary of our very first oilfield research newsletter. So much has transpired in the oilfield marketplace since we shipped Issue Number 1. Back then, the Lower 48 oilfield market was just emerging from the brutal 2014 downturn and at the cusp of a …

The picture remains about the same as it has for this entire cycle, showing a stark bifurcation between the… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new …

Halliburton reported 3Q19 earnings on Monday and the stock market ate up the cost cuts (stock was +8% intraday). We thought it was notable that CEO Jeff Miller focused much of his opening remarks on international. Halliburton is known more for their NAM footprint, but growth areas get airtime and …

It’s been almost a year since this sand producer filed a quarterly or annual SEC filing. Here’s what we learned that is relevant to the broader proppant market… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

In 2H17, we estimate the Union Pacific Railroad moved about one out of every X tons of frac sand pumped in the US. Today, we estimate their trains only move about one in X tons pumped.  

Friday’s 3Q19 earnings report and conference call from Schlumberger were of much greater interest than usual for US oilfield service market participants for two reasons: …. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must …

In addition to the in-depth updates Infill Thinking published this week, we hunted down a variety of miscellaneous datapoints from around the sandpatch that are deserving of a quick mention… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our …

A quick update on some of the latest happenings and trends in the OCTG markets after a chat with our friends at Tenaris and The OCTG Situation Report… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

Here’s what comes next for Asgard’s planned Mercer County frac sand production facility per various local officials… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill …

In this weekly rig count update, we take a look at the proximity of the new Bakken frac sand mines to the core of drilling activity in the Bakken.   feature image credit: No Title No Description There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  …

E&P M&A is heating up again this week with another Merger Monday. One of yesterday’s deals gave us a chance to hear from management on two hot industry topics… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research …

Action against an industrial plant has read-through to Texas local frac sand mining… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership …

This weekend, the Grand Forks Herald newspaper in North Dakota published a story titled: “Sand deposit could be ‘game-changer’ for ND oil industry.” Five weeks ago, Infill Thinking broke the news about a frac sand plant starting up in the Bakken. Here is a link to Infill Thinking’s original piece …

Plus 2 Permian wellsite storage competitors in one week!! Earlier this week, we reported on a new arrival in the Permian Basin’s last mile market. Today, we’ve been able to confirm new details about still another new competitor’s arrival in the Permian Basin…. There’s a lot more to this story… …

There’s a multi-parcel land auction scheduled for later this months that is likely to turn some heads in the Permian Basin – both in the ranching community and in the O&G industry. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and …

For those looking to learn what exactly happened, yesterday’s communication is likely to be seen as a disappointment. Here’s what stood out as we read the SEC filing… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

We shine our spotlight on a Eagle Ford drilling leading indicator after our recent trip to the basin to gather firsthand market intel… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. …

Last Friday, Oilfield Water Connection hosted industry leaders from across the country at the Houston Petroleum Club to talk about the rapidly evolving competitive landscape in full-cycle oilfield water management. Before the event, we shared 7 pre-conference questions were were hoping to gain perspective on. Asked and answered, the following …

After hearing from sand hauling contacts about a new last mile solution deploying in the Permian, we had a chance to catch up with the company to learn more about their activity in West Texas and the Lower 48… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the …

The best analogy we can think of for the frac sand market at the moment is that it is smack dab in the middle of the eye of the hurricane. In strong tropical cyclones, the eye is… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  …

About This Series Infill Thinking’s Aqua Men series brings the fast developing oilfield water management sector to life. This business has historically been dominated by private companies and internal divisions with E&Ps. Chronicling the sector’s leading platforms and projects lends fresh perspective to the once-in-a-generation shift now underway in oilfield …